The close connection between migration, human rights and climate change is increasingly self-evident, as "natural disasters" related to that linkage loom in many parts of the world. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) estimates that about 22.5 million people migrate each year within and across borders because of climate change and weather-linked disasters. These are all compounded by the spread of Covid-19 in terms of lockdowns and other restrictive measures.
How should Asian countries respond? On an encouraging note, Asian countries have participated well in the various climate change-related treaties and instruments, in particular the International Framework Convention on Climate Change and the more recent Paris Agreement, in terms of their acceptance of those standards. The goal of limiting the rise in global temperature not to exceed 1.5C pursuant to the Paris Agreement is generally accepted, and countries participate in the monitoring and review process, including submitting Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). They agree to enhance such contributions in relation to mitigation and adaptation from fossil fuels with a view to decarbonisation. However, there is a need to link those commitments with human rights standards and obligations, in addition to rules concerning the humane treatment of migrants.
Various corners of the Asian region have sub-regional organisations which can deal with migration, human rights and climate change. In one sub-region, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has various declarations, plans of action and mechanisms to deal with all three issues, encouraging a non-segmented approach to overcome the "silo mentality". Its main human rights body, the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights organised, for example, in 2021 a regional meeting on that trio of issues. It highlighted various substantive and procedural issues such as access to information, people's participation, access to justice, a rights-based approach to environmental decision-making and a rights-based approach to environmental impact assessment. There are also some regional treaties on the issues concerned; these include the 2002 Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution and the 2005 Asean Agreement on Natural Disasters and Emergency Response. An incisive Declaration was the 2019 Asean Declaration on the Rights of Children in the Context of Migration which underlined the need to avoid detaining children in immigration situations, thus complementing a similar axiom in the Global Compact on Migration.
